Fellow-citizens_--I am amazed and gratified at the character of this
demonstration to-night. I do not find words to express the emotions
which swell in my heart as I look into your faces and listen to the
kindly greetings which you have given me through your representative.
He has not spoken in too high praise of the railroad men of the United
States. The character of the duties they are called to discharge
require great intelligence, in many departments the best skill in the
highest mechanic arts, and in all, even in the lowest grade of labor
in connection with railroad management, there is required, for the
safety of the public who entrust themselves to your care, fidelity
and watchfulness, not only in the day, but in the darkness. The man
who attends the switch, the trackman who observes the condition of
the track--all these have put into their charge and keeping the
lives of men and women and the safety of our commerce. Therefore it
is that the exigencies of the service in which you are engaged have
operated to select and call into the service of our great railroad
corporations a picked body of men. I gratefully acknowledge to-night
the service you render to the country of which I am a citizen. The
great importance of the enterprises with which you are connected have
already suggested to our legislators that they owe duties to you as
well as to the travelling and mercantile public. The Congress of the
United States has, under that provision of the Constitution which
commits to its care all foreign and interstate commerce, undertaken
to regulate the great interstate railroads in the interest of equal
and fair competition and in the equal interest of all members of our
communities. I do not doubt that certain and necessary provisions
for the safety of the men who operate these roads will yet be made
compulsory by public and general law. [Applause.] The dangers
connected with your calling are very great, and the public interest,
as well as your own, requires that they should be reduced to the
minimum. I do not doubt that we shall yet require that uniformity
in the construction of railroad cars that will diminish the danger
of those who must pass between them in order to make up trains.
[Applause.] I do not doubt, either, that as these corporations are
not private corporations, but are recognized by the law to which I
have referred and by the uniform decisions of our courts as having
public relations, we shall yet see legislation in the direction of
providing some suitable tribunal of arbitration for the settlement of
differences between railroad men and the companies that engage their
services. [Great applause.] I believe that in these directions, and
others that I have not time to suggest, reforms will work themselves
out, with exact justice to the companies and with justice to the
men they employ. Because, my friends, I do not doubt--and I hope
you will never allow yourselves to doubt--that the great mass of
our people, of all vocations and callings, love justice and right
and hate oppression. [Applause.] The laboring men of this land may
safely trust every just reform in which they are interested to public
discussion and to the logic of reason; they may surely hope, upon
these lines, which are open to you by the ballot-box, to accomplish
under our American institutions all those right things you have
conceived as necessary to your highest success and well-being. Do not
allow yourselves to doubt, for one moment, the friendly sentiment of
the great masses of our people. Make your appeal wisely, and calmly,
and boldly, for every reform you desire, to that sentiment of justice
which pervades our American public. [Applause.]
You come to-night from one of our most beautiful Indiana cities.
It was built on the Wabash in the expectation that that stream would
furnish the channel of its communication with the outside world.
But the Wabash is a small tributary to-day to the commerce of Terre
Haute. The railroads that span it are the great vehicles of your
commerce. They have largely superseded the water communication that
was deemed so important in the first settlement, and, perhaps, was so
decisive in the location of your city. Terre Haute is conspicuous for
its industries. The smoke of your factories goes up night and day.
The farms about your city have become gardens, and the cordial and
harmonious relations between the railroad shop and the factory and
the farms that lie about have a conspicuous illustration with you.
You have found that that policy which built up these shops, which
maintains them, which secures the largest output yearly from the
factories, which gives employment to the largest number of men, is
the best thing not only for the railroads that do the transportation,
but for the workingmen, who find steady employment at good wages,
and for the farmers, who supply their needs. [Applause.] You will
not willingly be led to believe that any policy that would check
the progress and the prosperity of these enterprises is good for
you or for the community in which you live. [Applause and cries of
"No, never!"] It will be hard to convince such an intelligent body
of workingmen that a policy which would transfer from this country
to any other the work that might be done here is good for them.
[Applause.] It can easily be demonstrated that if our revenue laws
were so adjusted that the imports from Great Britain should be doubled
it would be good for the workingmen of England, but I think it would
be hard to demonstrate that it would be good for the workingmen of
America. [Applause.] There is a wise selfishness; it begins at home,
and he who has the care of his own family first, of the community in
which he lives, of the nation of which he is a citizen, is wise in his
generation.
Now, my friends, I have been daily talking. I used to be thought by
my friends to be a reticent man. [Laughter.] I fear I am making an
impression that I am garrulous. [Cries of "No! No!"] And yet, when
friends such as you take the trouble you have to-night to visit me, I
feel that I owe it to you to say something.
Now, thanking you for this roster, which will furnish authentic
evidence, if it is challenged, that this visit to-night has been from
genuine railroad men [applause], I venture to invite my Terre Haute
friends to enter my house. I will ask the citizens of Indianapolis,
the escort club of my own home, railroad friends who have done so
much to make your coming here to-night pleasant, to kindly refrain
themselves, and allow me to greet the visitors. In order that that
may be accomplished, I will ask some of my Terre Haute friends to
place themselves by the door, that I may meet those who are of their
company. The others I have seen, or will see some other day.
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 6.
Monday, August 6, General Harrison received a visit from one hundred
members of the Kansas City Blaine Club, accompanied by many ladies, _en
route_ to New York to welcome the Maine statesman on his return from
Europe. Col. R. H. Hunt led the club, and delivered a stirring address
on behalf of the Republicans of Missouri. On concluding he introduced
Miss Abbie Burgess, who presented the General a beautiful badge
inscribed "The Kansas City Blaine Club Greet Their Next President."
Miss Burgess made the presentation in the name of the working-women of
America.
General Harrison responded briefly to these addresses, stating that he
found he had been talking a great deal of late; "but," he added, "I
never begin it; some one else always starts it." He returned his cordial
thanks to the visitors for the compliment of their call.
Speaking of the trip which the visitors were making, he commended its
purpose in meeting upon his return to America "that matchless defender
of Republican principles--James G. Blaine." He felt sure that no
circumstance would be omitted in doing him merited honor. He was glad to
know that the Republicans of Missouri are so zealous and aggressive. He
believed that they had, perhaps, too much acquiesced in the majorities
against them, and had not offered such resistance as would prove their
own strength. In the coming canvass he thought the economic questions
at issue ought to work to the interest of Republicans in Missouri and
overcome in part the prevailing Democratic prejudices there. He also
expressed the hope that the race question would cease to divide men by
prejudices that should long ago have become extinct.
In reply to Miss Burgess' address the General expressed his grateful
appreciation of the souvenir, and said that the women of the land could
never be forgotten. To those of them who are toilers for their daily
bread the first thought goes out in considering the question that
involves depreciation of wages, and concluded by declaring if cheaper
coats and cheaper garments were to be had by still further reducing
the wages of the sewing-women of America, then he was not in favor of
cheaper apparel.
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 7.
Indianapolis contained several thousand visitors at this period, in
attendance on the State convention; in addition to these, however, on
the seventh of August two large delegations arrived. The first came
from Tippecanoe County. The city of Lafayette was represented by the
Lincoln Club, H. C. Tinney, President; the Garfield Club, Henry Vinton,
President; and the Young Men's Republican Club Association. Among other
prominent members of the delegation were James M. Reynolds, N. I.
Throckmorton, W. H. Caulkins, Charles E. Wilson, Wm. Fraser, John B.
Sherwood, Charles Terry, John Opp, Alexander Stidham, Matt Heffner, S.
Vater, Maurice Mayerstein, Geo. A. Harrison, W. D. Hilt, P. W. Sheehan,
C. H. Henderson, Henry Marshall, J. W. Jefferson, Wm. E. Beach, John B.
Gault, and H. M. Carter. Hon. B. Wilson Smith delivered an address on
behalf of his townsmen.
General Harrison, in his response, touched upon the origin and
principles of the Republican party. He said:
_Mr. Smith and my Tippecanoe County Friends_--I am very grateful
for the evidence which you give me this morning by your presence, and
by the kind words which your representative has addressed to me, of
your respect and good-will. You are members, in great part, of a party
that was not machine-made. It had its birth in an impulse that stirred
simultaneously the hearts of those who loved liberty. The first
convention of our party did not organize it. Those men were great, but
they were delegates--representatives of principles which had already
asserted their power over the consciences and the hearts of the
people. [Applause.] The Republican party did not organize for spoils;
it assembled about an altar of sacrifice and in a sanctuary beset with
enemies. You have not forgotten our early battle-cry--"Free speech,
a free press, free schools and free Territories." We have widened
the last word; it is now "a free Nation." The appeals which we have
made and shall yet make are addressed to the hearts, the consciences,
and to the mind of our people. Therefore, we believe in schools
and colleges, and seminaries of learning. Education is the great
conservative and assimilating force. A doubter is not necessarily
an evil person. The capacity to doubt implies reason--the power of
solving doubts; and if the doubt is accompanied with a purpose to find
the truth and a supreme affection for the truth when it is found, he
will not go widely astray. Therefore, in our political campaigns let
men think for themselves, and the truth will assert its sway over
the minds of our people. Then everything that affects the record and
character of the candidate and the principles of the parties will
be brought to a safe tribunal whose judgment will be right. [Great
applause and cries of "Good!"]
I am not unaware of the fact that some of you had another convention
preference, but I have always believed that convention preferences
should be free in the Republican party [applause], and that no
prejudice should follow any Republican on account of that preference.
As party men, we will judge a man by his post-convention conduct.
The second delegation comprised fifteen hundred citizens from Vanderburg
County. The Tippecanoe Club of Evansville, with sixty veterans, led the
column.
Leaders in the delegation were ex-Congressman Heilman, Henry S. Bennett,
Chas. H. McCarer, J. E. Iglehart, W. A. Wheeler, C. R. Howe, J. W.
Compton, S. B. Sansom, S. A. Bate, John H. Osborn, John W. Davidson,
Henry Ludwig, Wm. Koelling, A. S. Glover, J. W. Roelker, R. C.
Wilkinson, James D. Parvin, Wm. Warren, Chas. L. Roberts, and Geo. N.
Wells.
Dr. W. G. Ralston delivered an address in the name of the delegation.
General Harrison, in reply, said:
_My Good Friends from the Pocket_--I feel very much complimented by
your visit to-day. Your coming here from so great a distance involved
much inconvenience which those who live nearer have not experienced.
You are geographically remote, but it does not follow from that that
you are remote from the sources of political influence and political
power.
The General then spoke of the extension of the Republican party from
the lakes to the Ohio in Indiana and all over the North, saying that
geographical lines marked its limits only in the South. He said that
the people of Vanderburg County, living as they did on the Ohio River,
a river that some men sought to make the division line between two
governments, knew what it was to guard their homes and what it was to
send out veterans from the sturdy yeomanry to the defence of their
country. He referred in the highest terms to General Shackelford and
his service in the hour of his country's need. "I greet you to-day,"
he continued, "as Republicans--men whose judgment and conscience
compel their political opinions. It does not fall to my lot now to
argue or discuss at length any of the great political questions of
the day. I have done that in the past. It is reserved for others in
this campaign. I recall with pleasure my frequent visits to you and
your cordial reception when I came to speak to you. In this contest
others will maintain before you that great policy which, we believe,
dignifies every American, both at home and abroad."
Speaking in reference to wages, General Harrison said that he
thought we often forget the women who were compelled to work for their
daily bread. He sometimes thought those persons who demand cheaper
coats would be ashamed of themselves if they could realize that their
demand cut the wages of the women who made these coats. In concluding,
he greeted and thanked the Tippecanoe Club for coming, and the
Young Men's Republican Club also, saying that he had heard of their
efficient work in the highest terms of praise.
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 8.
_The Republican State Convention._
The Republican State Convention convened at Tomlinson Hall, city of
Indianapolis, August 8, 1888, and concluded its work in one day.
It was the largest attended and most enthusiastic convention ever held
in Indiana. Hon. Wm. H. Calkins of Indianapolis was chosen Chairman,
and Mark L. De Motte of Valparaiso Secretary. The following ticket was
nominated, and in November triumphantly elected:
_Governor_--Alvin P. Hovey, Posey County.
_Lieutenant-Governor_--Ira J. Chase, Hendricks County.
_Secretary of State_--Charles F. Griffin, Lake County.
_Auditor of State_--Bruce Carr, Orange County.
_Treasurer_--J. A. Lemcke, Vanderburg County.
_Attorney-General_--L. T. Michner, Shelby County.
_Superintendent Public Instruction_--H. M. LaFollette, Boone County.
_Reporter Supreme Court_--John L. Griffiths, Marion County.
JUDGES OF SUPREME COURT.
_First District_--Silas T. Coffey, Clay County.
_Second District_--J. G. Berkshire, Jennings County.
_Fourth District_--Walter Olds, Whitely County.
_Electors-at-Large_--James M. Shackelford, Vanderburg County; Thomas H.
Nelson, Vigo County.
Judge Gardner, a delegate from Daviess County, introduced a resolution,
which was unanimously adopted midst great enthusiasm, inviting General
Harrison to visit the convention, and designating Hon. Richard W.
Thompson, John W. Linck and E. P. Hammond a committee to convey the
invitation.
On the platform, with the presiding officer, to meet the distinguished
guest were the Hon. James N. Huston, Hon. John M. Butler, Hon. Will
Cumback, William Wallace, Hon. W. P. Fishback, Hon. A. C. Harris, Rev.
Dr. Backus, Judge E. B. Martindale, General Thomas Bennett, Judge J. H.
Jordan, and the Republican State officials.
The entrance of General Harrison, escorted by the committee, was
followed by a tumultuous scene rarely witnessed outside of a national
convention, the demonstration lasting nearly ten minutes. Chairman
Calkins finally succeeded in introducing--"the next President"--and
General Harrison spoke as follows:
_Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention_--When I received
your invitation to appear for a moment before you I felt that what
you asked could not involve any indelicacy, and as it offered me the
only opportunity which I shall have to look into the faces of my
Indiana Republican friends here assembled, I could not find it in
my heart to deny myself the pleasure of spending a moment in your
presence. [Applause.] This enthusiastic and kindly reception crowns
a long series of friendly acts on the part of my Republican friends
of Indiana. To have your confidence is very grateful to me, to be
worthy of your confidence is the highest ambition I can set before me.
[Applause.] Whatever may befall me, I feel that my fellow-citizens of
Indiana have crowned me and made me forever their debtor. [Applause.]
But I must not detain you from the business which has brought you
here. [Cries of "Go on!"] Such an assemblage as this is characteristic
of America. What you shall do to-day will influence the prosperity and
welfare of the State. Such a meeting is a notable historical event.
We have to-day transpiring in this country two other events that are
attracting wide interest. At the chief seaport of our country that
great Republican, and that great American, James G. Blaine, returns to
his home. [Applause.] We shall not be disappointed, I hope, in hearing
his powerful voice in Indiana before the campaign is old. [Applause.]
Another scene attracts our solemn and even tearful interest, for
while you are transacting your business here to-day a draped train is
bearing from the place of his sojourn by the sea to the place of his
interment at Washington the mortal part of Philip H. Sheridan. From
the convention at Chicago we sent him our greetings and our earnest
prayers for his restoration. To-day we mourn our hero dead. You called
him then a favorite child of victory, and such he was. He was one of
those great commanders who, upon the field of battle, towered a very
god of war. [Applause.] He was one of those earnest fighters for his
country who did not at the end of his first day's fight contemplate
rest and recuperation for his own command. He rested and refreshed
his command with the wine of victory, and found recuperation in the
dispersion of the enemy that confronted him. [Great applause.] This
gallant son of Ireland and America [great applause] has written a
chapter in the art of war that will not fail to instruct and to
develop, when the exigencies may come again, others who shall repeat
in defence of our flag his glorious achievements. [Great applause.]
And now, Mr. President, and gentlemen, I am sure the heat of this
hall and the labors that are before you suggest to you, as they do
to me, that I shall close these remarks and bid you good-by. [Great
applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 14.
Godfrey Commandery, Knights Templars, of Chicago, colored men, _en
route_ to the Grand Conclave at Louisville, paid their respects to
General Harrison on the 13th, and were individually presented by Eminent
Commander H. S. Cooper. On August 14 the visitors aggregated 6,000.
The first delegation came from Hamilton County, Indiana, headed by
eighty veterans of the Tippecanoe Club, Charles Swain, President. There
were nine Lincoln League organizations in line. Among the leaders were
J. K. Bush, J. E. Walker, F. B. Pfaff, J. R. Christian, Benj. Goldsmith,
Ike Hiatt, and C. R. Davis, of Noblesville, and Captain Carl, of
Arcadia. Hon. J. R. Gray was their spokesman.
General Harrison, in reply, said:
_Colonel Gray and my Hamilton County Friends_--The demonstration
which you have made this morning is worthy of Hamilton County; it is
worthy of the great party to which you have given the consent of your
minds and the love of your hearts; it is altogether more than worthy
of him whom you have come to greet. You come from a county that, as
your spokesman has said, is greatly favored, a county rich in its
agricultural capacity; but, as I look into your faces this morning
I turn from the contemplation of material wealth to the thought of
those things that are higher and better. [Applause and cries of "Good!
Good!"] Not long ago a distinguished Englishman and jurist visited our
country. On the eve of his return, in a public address, he alluded to
the fact that wherever he went he was asked whether he was not amazed
at the great size of our country. This student of law and government
very kindly, but very decidedly, rebuked this too prevalent pride of
bulk, and called our attention to the finer and higher things that he
had observed in our American civilization.
So to-day, as I look into these intelligent faces, my thoughts
are turned away from those things that are scheduled, that have
their places in our census returns, to those things which belong
to the higher man--his spiritual and moral nature. [Applause.] I
congratulate you, not so much upon the rich farm lands of your
county as upon your virtuous and happy homes. [Applause.] The home is
the best, as it is the first, school of good citizenship. It is the
great conservative and assimilating force. I should despair for my
country if American citizens were to be trained only in our schools,
valuable as their instruction is. It is in the home that we first
learn obedience and respect for law. Parental authority is the type of
beneficent government. It is in the home that we learn to love, in the
mother that bore us, that which is virtuous, consecrated, and pure.
[Applause.] I take more pride in the fact that the Republican party
has always been the friend and protector of the American home than in
aught else. [Applause.] By the beneficent homestead law it created
more than half a million of homes; by the Emancipation Proclamation it
converted a million cattle-pens into homes. [Applause] And it is still
true to those principles that will preserve contentment and prosperity
in our homes. I greet you as men who have been nurtured in such homes,
and call your thought to the fact that the Republican party has always
been, and can be trusted to be, friendly to all that will promote
virtue, intelligence and morality in the homes of our people.
Now, in view of the fact that I must greet other delegations to-day
[cries of "Don't stop!"], I am sure you will be content with these
brief remarks, though they are altogether an inadequate return for
your cordial demonstration.
The other delegations of the day came from Macon and Douglas counties,
Illinois, numbering 3,000. A notable feature of the Douglas County
display was the tattered old battle-flag of the Twenty-first Illinois
Regiment--General Grant's original regiment--borne by seven survivors.
Capt. T. D. Minturn, of Tuscola, was spokesman. At the head of the
Macon County column marched 300 uniformed members of the Young Men's
Republican Club of Decatur, led by Captain Wm. M. Strange and Wm.
Frazier; Prof. L. A. Estes, of Westfield, headed a company from that
town. Andrew H. Mills, of Decatur, spoke for the Macon County people.
General Harrison said:
_My Republican Friends_--I feel myself unable to respond suitably
to this magnificent demonstration and to those kindly words which you
have addressed to me. Public duties involve grave responsibilities.
The conscientious man will not contemplate them without seriousness.
But the man who sincerely desires to know and to do his duty may
rely upon the favoring help of God and the friendly judgment of his
fellow-citizens. [Great applause.]
Your coming from another State and from distant homes testifies to
the observing interest which you feel in those questions which are to
be settled by the ballot in November. [Cries of "We will settle them!"]
The confessed free-traders are very few in this country. But English
statesmen and English newspapers confidently declare that in fact we
have a great many. [Applause.]
We are told that it is only an average reduction of seven per
cent. that is contemplated. [Laughter.] Well, if that were true, and
not a very deceptive statement, as it really is, you might fairly
ask whether this average reduction does not sacrifice some American
industry or the wages of our workingmen and working-women. You may
also fairly ask to see the free list, which does not figure in this
"average." [Applause, and cries of "That's it!"] We would have more
confidence in the protest of these reformers that they are not
"free-traders" if we could occasionally hear one of them say that
he was a protectionist [applause], or admit that our customs duties
should adequately favor our domestic industries. But they seem to be
content with a negative statement.
Those who would, if they could, eliminate the protective principle
from our tariff laws have, in former moments of candor, described
themselves as "progressive free-traders," and it is an apt
designation. The protective system is a barrier against the flood of
foreign importations and the competition of underpaid labor in Europe.
[Applause.] Those who want to lower the dike owe it to those who live
behind it to make a plain statement of their purposes. Do they want to
invite the flood, or do they believe in the dike, but think it will
afford adequate protection at a lower level? [Great and enthusiastic
applause.]